What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Times

by Marina Hyde

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Now includes ELEVEN new columns and a whole THREE new prime ministers.
Relive the delusional fever-dream of the modern era.
'Thank f*ck for Marina the most lethal, vital, screamingly funny truth-teller of our time.'
PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE
'The most brilliantly funny columnist of our time.'
GARY LINEKER
'It's a scientific Marina Hyde is Britain's funniest writer.'
CAITLIN MORAN
Drawn from her spectacularly funny Guardian columns, What Just Happened?! is a welcome blast of humour and sanity in a world where reality has become stranger than fiction. Join Hyde as she revisits every moment of magic, from David Cameron to Theresa May to Boris Johnson to Rishi Sunak. Did we miss anyone? Boggle at the cast of Hollywood sex offenders, populists, sporting heroes (and villains), media barons, reality TV monsters, police officers, wicked advisers, philanthropists, fauxlanthropists, frostbitten princes and (naturally) Gwyneth Paltrow. It's the full state banquet of crazy - and you're most cordially invited.
'A joyous rallying voice in British journalism.'
GRAYSON PERRY
'An infinite number of gag-writers, working all day in a gag factory, couldn't come up with any of the perfectly-formed one-liners that populate Marina Hyde's hilarious writing . . . But behind the wit lurks real anger, argument, exasperation and intelligence. Her writing is more than a gentle poke in the it's a well-wrought and deftly aimed smash in the teeth.'
ARMANDO IANNUCCI

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Humor, Essays, Audiobook, Journalism, Society

516 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Jonathan Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read the blurb about it before buying, just bought it based on the fact that I love Marina's column in The Guardian. I was expecting new content, so was a bit disappointed to then discover it's just a reprint of previous Guardian articles. If you've not read them before, and can cope with revisiting topics including Boris Johnson, Brexit and Covid so soon after the events, then the writing is first class. Personally, I had forgotten much of the content, so it was like coming to it new, but I gave up halfway through because I'm trying to forget that those three events ever happened.

[Steve Kimmins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sort of forced myself to read this present of a book as it’s outside my idea of relaxing reading - reading a summary of newspaper columns written over the last 5-6 years. The motivation for doing so was that the columnist is someone I’ve read sometime ago, when I once regularly read English newspapers. She writes for a newspaper whose views vaguely agree with mine, having a generally liberal outlook. In fact, the only UK Daily I’d give my time to.

I’m glad I did in the end as it made me angry! With the amateurish, self centred politics, populist, government that we’ve experienced in the UK over the past few years. Major topics covered included the Brexit nonsense, CoVid responses and the buffoonish Boris Johnson. Even a dash of Trump, to show it’s not just us suffering from an introverted popularism in our politics.

So much wrong with our politics, but the writer balances her critiques with wit and ridicule too. Ridicule is an excellent way to puncture the pompous. She’s quite good at throwing out phrases describing characters and events too. For example, the tendency of some of our privately schooled politicians to throw Latin phrases, or long anarchic words, into their mundane speeches led her to describe them as posing as the ‘classic stupid-person’s-idea-of-a-clever-person,..’.

She covers a range of topics in her columns, not all to my taste. Quite a lot of politics, of course. Some sport, as she’s knowledgable about football in particular, which is also OK with me. But she also writes about ‘Showbiz’ sometimes and although I can see she’s trying to explain celebrity culture without glorifying it I confess to having skipped much of those chapters. Though the #Metoo review was good.
One criticism of the book is that selected newspaper columns covering similar issues may be months or years apart when written but now that they’re squeezed together in a single book you can’t help noticing the same phrases repeatedly used to describe the same characters, and that can seem repetitive. I think that aspect and the Showbiz content just knock it back to 4* for me.

In fact, I think I’ll seek out her columns in her newspaper which has free online availability, as I’m on the same page as her regarding our mutual dislike of the current crop of politicians, and not all of them being on the Right of the political spectrum either.

Very much for those in the UK as it often refers to people and events I doubt are known beyond our borders. Even then, be aware it’s more likely to make you annoyed rather than laugh!

[Val Asker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marina Hyde writes for The Guardian newspaper and “What Just Happened” is a collection of her columns from 2016 - 2022, mostly a satirical commentary on British politics but also with sections on other topics including the royal family, sport and celebrities. Each year in politics as its own section (2016: Binfire of the Vanities, 2021: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before) with the other topics interspersed. I thought this was a good way to lay out the book as it broke up the narrative and also provided a bit of light relief. Although that’s not to say that this book was unrelenting doom and gloom - Marina Hyde’s writing is extremely witty and had me laughing out loud a lot of the time.

If like me you were horrified by the outcome of the 2016 referendum and feel that the country has been on a downward spiral since then, this is the book for you! If however despite the events of the past few years you have continued to put your faith in the Tories then I don’t think it would appeal! I also think it requires a certain amount of knowledge and understanding of British politics, as the columns are written as reaction to events rather than describing them.

I greatly enjoyed reading the book, partly because I agree with the author’s sentiments, partly for the style of writing and also because it was a sobering reminder of how the country has ended up in its present state.

In particular I enjoyed Marina Sharp’s descriptions of politicians and other public figures. Theresa May is ‘The Florence Foster Jenkins of politics’, ‘governing like she’s got a landslide majority’, Boris Johnson ‘what would happen if you started making Margaret Rutherford out of papier-mâché but got bored halfway through’ and Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘a sort of monocled Sergio Ramos’. I am visualising the Spitting Image puppets as I write!

The book ends with Boris Johnson’s resignation and the forthcoming leadership election and concludes with the words ‘Send in the Clowns. Ah, don’t bother. They’re Here’. Which sums it all up nicely.

[Jo Feather · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover blurb offered by Phoebe Waller Bridges puts it pretty plainly - thank f*ck for Marina Hyde. I couldn’t agree more.

Marina’s sharp insights and dry humour make her regular Guardian columns a must read highlight. I often find myself re-reading paragraphs in wonder - thinking how cleverly they have been constructed, so sharply cutting through to the point at hand.

This book provides a collection of those columns from 2016 to 2022 - covering a highly charged turbulent period in not just politics but across society in general. The material is strongly UK flavoured but includes discussion of political topics and themes that will be familiar and relevant more broadly (the US elections, Covid-19).

For those with an interest in politics, with a distinctly liberal leaning vibe, this is an enjoyable run through events of recent years. Although, it is a bit crazy to think of how much madness has happened when you read it in this way….

[Deirdre Clancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fittingly, Marina Hyde looks like a kind of demented Alice in Wonderland on the cover of What Just Happened: Dispatches from Turbulent Times. Those of us who notice glaring double standards a lot are bound to empathise. At any given time, there is always a certain percentage of people in powerful positions who are there by virtue some combination of privilege, connections, and clinically narcissistic levels of self-belief. The world is always a little bit upside down, in the sense of our principalities and powers. However, since 2016, it has been upside down on steroids. It seemed like David Bowie died and suddenly everything went to pot (I'm pretty sure I stole this concept from an article on Newsthump I read in 2016, just to acknowledge my sources, but it rang true). The cover of the book is brilliant, in that it illustrates how many decent folk have been feeling over the last number of years.

Marina Hyde is a brilliantly funny satirist with an ingenius ability to describe this situation. Her intimate knowledge of the British political landscape makes the commentary reach a level of granularity that I honestly found a little tough going at times, but at other times hilarious. While Brexit was a regrettable thing to us Irish, for me, following its ins and outs that closely hasn't really been a priority. To those more familiar with the subject, these portions of the book may be more rewarding. Certain other articles rang stunningly true, such as 'Britons want a bit of drama from their leaders - and Keir Starmer isn't serving it'. It seems to be a truism that the nuttier the Prime Minister is as an ideologue, the longer they last in the U.K. There is of course one exception to this: Liz Truss. Hyde's book was published before her 'tenure', but I mean, Truss does at least have the distinction of overturning this rule of thumb.

The class system has an inordinate influence on politics in the U.K. The state of affairs in which the vast majority of PMs (including Labour Party ones) have gone to Eton, then Oxford, is bizarre in the extreme to the rest of the world, but seems to be universally seen as OK across the pond. Apart from this, my main engagement with U.K. politics has been the several occasions when I've had to explain to people when they refer to my home city of Dublin as being 'part of the U.K. I haven't been to', or 'part of the U.K. I love', etc., that in fact, Dublin has been a part of the Republic of Ireland since we won the War of Independence in 1921. However, it has been fascinating to read the take of someone who contends with this system as a voter and journalist, and is also an extremely gifted satirist.

Admittedly, I rarely engage sports journalism, unless sports interacts with another issue I care about, such as violence against women. (For example, I did engage with much of the U.S. gymnastics Larry Nassar scandal at the time it was gaining a lot of coverage.) I will say, however, that Hyde's thoughts on sports are a lot more interesting to me than the average sports journalism. She points out the hubris involved in Tories targeting footballers' salaries as being problematic, which seems accurate. On the other hand, she regards the humanitarian efforts of successful footballers as providing 'life lessons' to children, but derides this 'life lessons' view of sport in her Tiger Woods commentary. This seems like a contradiction to me. It's also unclear how she can so dislike 'moralizing' about Tiger Woods' utilization of women on a massive scale, yet gets upset when cricket star Geoffrey Boycott gets a knighthood. She also has no qualms about commenting on Boris Johnson's prolific activities in relation to women (and offspring) either. I'm not sure why Woods gets a free pass here. It's possible to acknowledge that he may have faced discrimination in the golf world, without condoning this behaviour.

There's a hilarious article on the tech billionaire space race, and a lot of generally astute observations about the often phony, showy philanthropic activities of the super-rich. The article on the post office scandal is well worth a read, as it's a brilliant summing up of a really shameful series of events.

My favourite piece is 'All women know they are prey - and that no one with any authority seems to care'. If I had to re-frame it, I'd say 'Many women know they are prey, some are in denial about it, because they're dependent on those with authority for their livelihoods'. It's really about time to let the world know that many of us know this fact: we gleaned it from years of looking over our shoulders, being harassed on the streets, minimized, devalued into nothing more than objects. We develop a radar as we're out walking, by necessity. The reason I say some women are still in denial is that this became clear from the Weinstein scandal. Women assistants enabled him horribly. Female actors came out and said they were 'proud' of how 'quickly their industry' addressed the issue, when in fact, Weinstein had been abusing for many decades, and 'their industry' only addressed it when the story was well and truly broken by Ronan Farrow, Rose McGowan, and others. Prior to Weinstein, the casting couch was a running joke since the inception of Hollywood, really.

Despite a few caveats, I'd definitely recommend Marina Hyde's writing for those who feel they've been living in a sort of dystopian parallel universe for the last number of years and wish to both laugh and feel less alone in that observation.

[Marguerite Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Marina Hyde's column in the Guardian. Her particular form of acerbic wit, the way she has of using such a wide frame of cultural references to illustrate her points, really appeal to me - as, I will admit up front, does her left-wing inclinations. She decided not to edit the articles in this collection, which spans the years from Brexit to the appointment of the first of a series of short-lived Tory PMs, taking in Trumpian politics, and dipping into Hollywood, moguls and the media by way of light relief.

We've lived through a political maelstrom in the last few years. Brexit tore many families apart (we had to ban the top from my family WhatsApp) and what happened to the UK in the elections that followed was even more divisive. That my family are all still talking, still very close, is a minor miracle. Politics took centre stage for lots of people that never normally bother with it. We tuned in to live debates and votes. During the pandemic, we watched our 'leaders' every day on the tv putting it to us! And what I found bizarre about reading this collection which documents just how it all unrolled, is just how much I'd forgotten. It kept getting more and more bizarre. It's STILL getting more and more bizarre. Have we become normalised?

This is an incredibly funny and scary and brilliant book. It's not going to please people with certain politics, but for those whose politics is even centre-ground, Marina Hyde's pithy way with words will have you laughing out loud. She grounds you. She gets to the core of an issue, peeling away all the rubbish and says, look at this! Seriously, look at this!

Shocking. Scarily funny. Brilliant. I loved this

[Lis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good lord, that was a slog. And shows why they only publish columns once a week.

In other news, the Kindle app is now recommending me the worst kind of centrist da, Russ-in-Cheshire aren’t-the-Tories-so-FUNNY titles that are so tightly time-bound by their relevance they’ll be getting remaindered at The Works in six months. I really hope Goodreads doesn’t take this opportunity to do the same.

[Anni · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If the government is in any doubt as to why so many millions think it's one rule for them and another for the little people, then this week couldn't be a better primer. You lose one form and you lose your job, your cancer treatment, your benefits, your liberty; you lose a generation's forms and you're the effing prime minister. Those condemned to battle the system that ministers design know what happens if they make tiny errors. Furthermore, they know that if they messed up a tenth as badly in their jobs, they'd be sacked. But in the arse-over-tit world of government, you're safe because your sacking would make the big boss - May - look weak. Just like your HR department, right? Except on LSD."

"Ultimately, it's hard to see Branson as anything other than the classic 'billionaire philanthropist' (is there any other kind of billionaire?) who declines to accept that the public finances would be in rather better state if people like them contributed their fair share. Forgive me for repeating myself, but philanthropy starts with paying tax. With the best will inn the world, it isn't enough to imply the only reason you operate out of a tax haven is because you like the weather."

"Gwyneth's $250m-plus empire unavoidably implies that the path to happiness is via intense consumerism. It's also very much an iterated journey - you buy the vagina egg for one problem, which gives you back pain, so you buy the FaciaBlaster, which gives you bruising, so you buy the homeopathic arnica montana. And so on and so on, forever course-correcting towards wellness but never quite attaining its shores. It's possible to see your life in this church as a cascade of highly priced non- solutions, each purchase flowing from the problems caused by the previous one. How does it end? I guess by then you're an old lady and you swallow a horse. And end up dead, of course."

[Rob Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. In the introduction to the book Marina worries presenting topical news and political newspaper articles won't work years after they were first written.

I agree. They don't.

[Stephen Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read the intro and first few chapters since receiving this book, but I read almost all of these when they were published as columns. Ithu will be an essential reference for me to capture what it felt like and what I was thinking during the time from post 2016 to post pandemic. I have had to stop reading for now though as it's opening up too many raw feelings I feel I've only just been able or bury. But I will treasure this as especially at the time many of these columns helped get me through the wtf-ery of those days, and managed to raise what felt like impossible laughs, in the way the daily show and Jon Stewart helped me through the Bush years

[Hannah Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marina Hyde, journalist love of my life, whose columns I eagerly await to be published each week. What a book! No one else, I feel, has done justice to the seemingly never-ending political shitstorm in which we are living. This is blistering, insightful, laugh out loud funny, and all-round fantastic journalism. Desperately sad that it's over because frankly I would read every word this woman has ever written.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Beckie Turton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marina is a genius! Probably more my inability to focus on anything for longer than 5 mins atm, but it became my downfall in trying to finish this book. Also I’ve now been reminded how absolutely batshit the last 8 years have been and need to go and sit in a dark room and rock

[Jeff Howells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marina Hyde is - hands down - the best columnist working in British journalism today. Not only is she laugh out loud funny, but I end up nodding along with her viewpoint so hard I’m surprised my head hasn’t fallen off. To me she’s up there as a humourist with Clive James and the early columns of Charlie Brooker.
She hits the nail on the head with scabrous precision every single time.
I’ve been hoping for a collection of her journalism for a long time - and this doesn’t disappoint. Shining her invective on the period since the Brexit vote, since when this country has been trapped in ever increasing waves of incompetence and calamity. Hyde is the preeminent example of looking for the humour in even the bleakest of circumstances. It’s not just jokes - she displays a strong moral core and backbone. Volume 2 can’t come quick enough.

[Steven Pilling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two days in hospital.. Read many of the columns but as s group it has amplified effect . Funny in a way I wish it wasnt

[Stephen Higham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very droll, Marina. I too dislike Boris Johnson and I too have seen films.

[Conor Sheehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish that I had read the reviews earlier as it is essentially all of Marina Hyde's articles for the year. Nonetheless, it was a funny and interesting read on a year in British politics.

[Neville Filar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilariously funny even if the subject matter makes you weep

How is it possible to write so superbly when you want to scream. Or headbut the wall .Or Boris Jxxxson. I don't know but Marina Hyde does it in spades. Even if I had to look up the odd reference ( I'm not as young as I was) I thoroughly enjoyed the best of Hyde over the last few I industrially shite years. I'm with her to the death about the mendacity lying sexism racism and all the rest of the sewer we live in as a result of successive and worsening political and social scene. Three cheers Marina. Keep slagging the bastards off. We need you. And thanks for this anthology.

[Sivvy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent (if utterly depressing) journal of the bewildering state of the world - and the UK in particular - over the last few years, as recounted at the time by Marina Hyde’s witty and incisive columns. Like Caitlin Moran, Hyde has a real way with words and beautifully captures every WTF moment that we’ve collectively endured as a nation. Thank god for decent journalists holding truth to power in these complicated times.

[Peter Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not living in the UK, I am not ofay with a level of detail that I would likely need to appreciate, to have lived through, to get the most from this selected collection of Guardian thrice weekly articles written by the author. So whilst I can appreciate some superlative comedic writing, I know that I am in all likelihood missing a key element in truly appreciating the work to its fullest.
A collection of the authors regular newspaper articles commencing in 2016 to 2022.

As such, I found myself selectively reading components, articles, as opposed to reading all of the work, picking as it were, those that seemed to hold the greatest promise to me as a reader. On that basis, the collection read were, to a one, forth right in opinion, leaving the reader in no doubt where the author stood from what she had observed. There are some statements that I saw as pure genius. No quotes, so that I give you the breadth of opportunity to select your own.

If you are in the UK, you will likely get more from this work than I did, however that said, the humor transcends specific understanding or memories sufficiently to make this an enjoyable, if but selective, reading experience.

[Sal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Marina Hyde's writing, and her column in the Guardian is always a highlight. She has so many great turns of phrase, and beautifully captures the mood of the moment.
However, for me those superb columns do not translate well into book form. They are designed to be read in the moment, preferably with a cuppa, every word savoured. As a collected work I found it too much.
It was interesting to see the progression of events, each crazy thing in turn topped by another even crazier thing. But the impact was undermined by knowing what was to come. When I first read those columns they were fresh and incredulous. Reading them again I felt jaded and dispirited, knowing what was to come.
So for me this didn't quite work. A superb writer but I prefer the small vignettes to the book.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hyde wields a rapier at times, sometimes a bludgeon, and eviscerates the political class (mostly Tory) with willful abandon. Beneath the gloriously witty prose, lies a deep and dark rage, that calls out the failings of the ruling class in stark terms

[Demetri Loizou · Rating 3 out of 5]

That took me fucking ages, even skipping the columns I didn’t care about (mainly showbiz). Hilarious in places, like a centrist Frankie Boyle.

[Bernadette Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

It occurs to me that Marina Hyde may not be a real person at all, but a kind of famished waif, with clinical vampirism who is kept in big dark glass cage somewhere in the recesses of the Guardian newspaper and just let loose at feeding time.

Celebrity kittens, and big beasts are I imagine, fed to her through a hatch, on a pitch fork, from a distance for the safety of her handlers.

On a small feed day, its the kittens - usually little celebrities, outré or struggling in someway, with some dubious claim to plausibility or fame, tottering on their high heels these (often) silly girls are delivered though the hatch to the famished she-wolf of the Guardian newspaper.

Nothing in this sunshine yellow hardback covered book though, of Peaches Geldof who provided such comedy for the nation, as the object of Hyde’s lampoons.

By dying in April 2014 of a suspected heroin overdose, who knows how much entertaining copy Peaches Geldof deprived Hyde of?

Though Geldof was annoying she was turning a corner and was on her way to becoming an interesting woman, but we will never know now what she might have become, will we?

Instead her coffin travelled through an idyllic countryside on a spring day , in 2014. She was 25.

Apart from the kittens, sometimes the poor waif of the Guardian has to really earn her keep, and they throw her in a big beast from the world of politics , he usually comes with horns, hooves and curly tail intact, and she has to tear him apart with her bare hands herself.

She gnaws away on the thick hides of big beasts, and has even been know to attempt the indigestible parts, with her teeth, without complaint.

She tells us, these offerings are light hearted and we, she hopes we will enjoy them with a packet of crisps, a glass of wine. They are just for us to have a good cackle , to add to the gaiety of the nations.

These pieces are as you would expect from someone, working themselves into a frenzy over little celebrities, are FROTHY and full of SHOUTY capital letters, sometimes whole sentences, and yups.

Its ‘cos we wouldn’t get the emphasis, the intensity of it all otherwise.

So good for a laugh then with a packet of crisps?

[Ted Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is tough to review a book which tackles big, topical news, but at the same, doesn't take itself terrifically seriously.

On the one hand, there is merit here. Mariana Hyde is a good writer, who understands how to write engagingly about topical news. She does a very good job of capturing the readers attention, and the format of the book helps to keep up momentum. This book is a collection of Hyde's Sunday columns of the same name. It typically takes a piece of topical news and skewers it in a snarky, smug, centrist way. Therein lies another merit; this is a handy primer for anyone wanting a gentle way to remember the past five or so years. Unfortunately, the last five years being what they are, even Hyde's very light touch commentary can turn the reader's stomach.

And so, to the other hand. The book is just too long. Hyde's writing style is perfect for a short, snippy column piece but becomes worn after the first two hundred pages. It is a shame that this book wasn't cut down slightly because in a shorter, lightened format, I would have enjoyed it much more. But then that would have sacrificed the comprehensive view of the period, so I suppose the decision does make sense. If anything, this is the perfect book to dip in and out of, rather than sit down to read as a piece of non-fiction.

On top of this, Hyde's style is knowingly annoying. The best section concerns the violence against women and features a searing series of columns. Indeed, some of her political commentary has more bite than may be expected for this type of column. Unfortunately, it all comes across as the type of 'smug' posturing typical of the 'liberal' side of British politics. In particular one column around what it means to be a 'Londoner', and others concerning celebrity culture, are all just crushingly annoying. And admittedly- being a smug, bleeding heart liberal myself- it is just very irritating someone else doing the same schtick, but better and with so much talent.

On the whole, this is the perfect gift for someone you like but you don't like. It's worthwhile reading if you're a casual political nerd. But it is in no way the essential book of politics some other journalists tried to persuade people it was at the end of last year.

[Mike Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A full state banquet of crazy: Marina Hyde’s Guardian column has been a reliable place to turn to for comic relief when the grotesque incompetence, chaos, sleaze and lies of our betters threaten to overwhelm. Arguably, a collection of journalistic hot takes on an unusually turbulent period in our history - this volume starts in 2019 and ends in the defenestration of Johnson - runs the risk of seeming horribly dated but we need this as a reminder, and a laugh out loud one at that, of all that has happened.

For one thing, somebody’s got to fact check Matt Wankcock who is busily revisionising history so as not to have to accept blame for the multiple failures of his during the pandemic. If it’s difficult now to remember this laughable kangaroo bum-muncher was once health secretary, imagine what else can be buried by the time a ponderous public inquiry manages to egest a report.

Much as it will be a useful piece of social and political history, it’s the bantz that you come to Ms H for and she remains reliably on point, whether coining the word wallygarchy to describe Johnson’s gift of a knighthood to the spectacularly useless and unpleasant Gavin Williamson, or the description of Andrea Leadsom’s terrifying smile - “it’ll come after you, that smile”. Marina somehow frequently nails what it is we find so unlikeable/despicable/sinister about certain public figures.

But she’s at her best when she puts the satire to one side for a moment and displays genuine anger - such as in her diatribe against the advice given to women after the murder of Sarah Everard: “Where do you even start? When will it ever stop…there are now even more things for ladies to add to their list of Shit I’m Advised To Do To Stay Safe Because It Saves Anyone Else Having To Do Anything. Today, the Met Police advised people approached by a lone policeman to ask searching questions such as ‘Where have you come from?’…To which, I am afraid the only acceptable reaction is: NO. No to this bollocks, no to thoughts-and-prayers, and no to accepting this standard of policing…”

[Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know if you noticed, but a lot has happened recently.
I mean, a LOT.
You probably remember that small matter of a pandemic. Or maybe you remember Brexit.
But how many Prime Ministers did we have in that time?
Note What Just Happened comes to an end before we get the last two when jotting your answer in the margin.
Thankfully, Marina Hyde was on hand to record events – all of them, it seems – and has now had the good grace to collate her accounts into one huge volume for us to re-live at our.... leisure? fresh hell? recurring nightmare?
Picking up events just after then-PM David Cameron had surveyed the damage he'd done and figured some other shmuck could clean that shit up, Hyde's collated columns take us through the two subsequent PMs (be honest, you thought it was more), the car crash of the Brexit negotiations and on to Boris Johnson thinking he could hang out with 100 people getting pissed but you weren't allowed near your dying loved ones.
In between, we stop off at an American president with tiny hands, Hollywood stars selling very personal candles, the royal family and the Post Office scandal.
Among many other diverse topics.
It's been a golden age for columnists and satirists, and Hyde is both at the top of her field and the top of her game. Every carefully-weighted word makes you think. Or laugh. Or cry.
Occasionally all three.
Her anger, when it rises (spoiler: it rises often), fair tears off the page as she records the actions of a certain PM, his party, his parties, his lies....
....but she's angry about a lot of other things too (and rightly so), but still manages to find a way to make us laugh while our blood pressure spikes.
As I said, there's been a lot going on (a LOT) since 2016. The one bright spark in the gloom has been Marina Hyde's take on it all.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Columns from the inimitable Marina Hyde from 2016-2022: if you haven't read her, feast your eyes on quotations below and rest assured, there's plenty more of this sardonic commentary. In the interests of our sanity.

17 June 2016: Nigel Farage is about to achieve everything he wants. That alone should make leavers think again.

24 June 2016: As for Boris, never forget that the only untruth the prime ministerial favourite-in-waiting corrected in the entire campaign was the Sunday Times misapprehension that he dyed his hair.

29 November 2019: Boris Johnson's big contribution to reducing plastic is not wearing condoms.

11 December 2019: It's difficult to be sure of anything other than the realisation that there are highly unstable radioactive isotopes deteriorating less quickly than our standards of public debate.

26 February 2021: Rishi Sunak... Exchequer spokesmodel/gyoza-toting architect of Eat Out To Spread It About/the Conservative party's idea of a cool person.

8 March 2022: It was reported that Poland had taken 800,000 refugees [from Ukraine], the UK had accepted a mere 50. Which, to put things into perspective, is half the number of people you'd invite to a Downing Street bring-your-own-bottle party in the middle of lockdown.

15 March 2022: Four protesters yesterday occupied a house in London's Belgravia that is supposedly owned by the Russian aluminum magnate Deripaska (now on the UK's sanctions list). They unfurled some banners inviting Vladimir Putin to fuck himself and so on, before being removed by the largest Met police presence you'll see outside of a women's vigil for someone murdered by a Met police officer.

[Rich B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of the writer’s opinion columns from The Guardian from the mid-2010s up to the end of Boris Johnson’s term as PM.

Boris features a lot in this and it’s worth a read alone for the various scathing and hilarious descriptions of his wanton self-interest and bumbling incompetence, both as a politician and as an individual.

The articles are mostly political as she comments on the traumas of Brexit and the continuing shambolic reign of the Tories. However, the Labour Party and in fact, most politicians don’t particularly come out of this very well. We also get some columns that delve into celebrity and sports.

The slight challenge with reading this book is that the columns are generally designed to be short, punchy and topical and are churned out to be consumed weekly. So reading them one after the other, you find a fair bit of repetition and padding, and they don’t all hold your attention equally. The best way I could describe it is like nibbling on a never-ending series of amuse-bouches rather than eating a main meal. Terrible analogy but the best I could come up with as I thought about the book afterwards.

How much you enjoy this depends on which way your politics leans. Mine definitely leans in a similar direction. Though I didn’t agree with everything she said, I enjoyed her way of expressing her opinions and her general mockery and truth-telling about the dismal state of British politics. A fun read.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost like having Linda Smith back among us. The first 100 pages give you a chance to see that you were right, and that everyone you thought was a turd 1n 2016 has been shown to have been a turd after all. If you want to stay on the right side of the political fence and the right side of history, first learn how to tell goose-shit from tapioca. Marina Hyde is spot on with regards to this distinction. If she finds you a touch whiffy then you won’t be served up for school dinners. Just as well to test yourself of course...If you backed Gove, Farage, Leadsom, Johnson or Truss then you need a few lessons in anserine faecal matter.... Nice to be reminded that current pin-up girl of the tories and second favourite to replace Truss, Penny Mourdant, backed more than her fair share.

Its difficult to go back to the politics of 2016 without wincing but if you have to be taken there, Ms. Hyde is excellent and comforting company.

Very funny and not just on politics. It may be useful to be reminded that Gregg Wallace was a prick 6 years ago and that Alex Jones supporters were getting his recommendations of how to avoid becoming “fat, sick and stupid” without a whiff of irony.

Is the columnist the first draft of history? This sums up the last six years pretty well. The perfect antidote to too much Daily Mail.